Sunday, 29 June 2014

Hungarian Rhapsody...Part Five...On the Puszta (Steppe)

Day six was to be spent visiting the Little Hortobagy a
fairly short drive from Farm Lator.As
Farm Lator’s website reminds us, it is set nicely on the edge of the Carpathian Mountains and also the great plains of Hungry
and therefore offers excellent habitat to explore.As the name suggests, a smaller area than the
Hortobagy (proper), but no less exciting and rewarding and there are in my
experience few visitors.The other
advantage is that there are no areas requiring official guides to enter.The area is officially managed by the Bukk National
Park.

White Storks

Sam and I began the morning garden watch even earlier today.
But there was still no sign of Hawfinch or Serin.My promise to Sam before we’d left the UK of easy
sightings of Serin was proving a little dodgy.Never mind we had our now regular sighting of Eastern Imperial Eagle, so we weren’t complaining!We passed the Common Terns on flying over the pond at the reed-bed near Saly.

Roller and Lesser Grey Shrike were two of the
target birds today and it wasn’t long before we were watching both
species.Rollers were seen in glorious close up and in some numbers.I’m also pleased to say that after hearing Quail we actually saw a number of
them.The actual sighting of these birds
was a first for us all.Red BackedShrikes were also in the area. As was Grass Snake seen under our feet as we sat by a small bridge
watching Marsh Harriers.We’d driven along a bone dry and cracked road
and had intended to take this off road route around the area, but such was the
concern for the hire car we turned around and took a very long detour to the
other area we wished to visit.In 2008 a
walk along the tracks meant that Graham and I had to struggle through rubber
like mud that stuck to the boots and seemed to suck us into it.It was so different today as there had been
little rain in recent times.The area
was baked hard by the hot sun and we had been told that that the few pools
there are, were very low.We did have
new hides to visit which had been put up since our previous visit.

Red Backed Shrike

Walking past the farm and along by the water channels I was
surprised that no Whiskered Terns were present at all.Probably a sign of conditions and one sign of
several that climate is playing a part in the distribution of flora and fauna.We did have sighting of our first (Eastern) Clouded Yellow Butterflies of the trip
however, and we were soon climbing the tower hide where we spent a long period
of time with excellent and often close sightings of the likes of Night Heron, Great White Egret, Grey Heron, Purple Heron, White Stork,
Black Stork, Spoonbill (in numbers), Marsh
Harrier, Common Buzzard, Kestrel (we found pellets on the hide floor which
Sam examined in detail), Common Crane
(in numbers) and Lesser GreyShrike.To have the Black Stork fly
over our heads and to watch the mixed flock of Spoonbill and Common Crane
take off was definitely a highlight of the trip.Curlews
were heard and we decided to walk to the hide where we could have closer views
of the pool.

Black Stork

Once in situ we had fine sightings of Greylag Geese, Mallard, Gadwall, Pintail, Teal, Avocet,Lapwing, Redshank, flock of Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Curlew,
and a flock of Ruff in summer
plumage.Black Winged Stilts had been picked up in flight early on our
walk.All of the birds today were active
and giving fine views often in flight above and around us.

As we walked back towards the farm and the car we had Roe Deer approach in front of us from
the right and it gave a wonderful sighting as it stood on the track watching
our approach.Then as we passed the car
a Short Toed Eagle flew over the
farm directly towards us and flew over our heads and turned as if to watch us
whilst giving a grand sighting.The bird
hung in the air for sometime giving me my best ever sighting of this species.

At the farm

Today’s trip is up there with my all time great birding
days.The sun was still hot as we left
for our return to Farm Lator.It
hadbeen baking hot out there at times
today.Such was the rewards of the day
we decided to return tomorrow.

Day Seven.

Sam and I were in the garden hide bright and early and as
well as sighting both Great and Middle Spotted Woodpecker, we heard Green Woodpecker.Also much to my relief we had sighting of Serin so my promise wasn’t broken.Perhaps the garden sighting of the week
turned up in the form of Hawfinch bothadult and juvenile.Definitely my best ever sighting of Hawfinch.All this amongst numerous Great Tits, the odd Blue Tit, Marsh Tits and numbers of Nuthatch.Coal Tit never did appear on the trip
list!We kept up our daily sighting of Eastern Imperial Eagle.

We were soon to be off to the Little Hortobagy again and
this time we intended to make straight for the area with the pools and
hides.Missing out part of the region
gave us the opportunity to call first at the Bee Eater colony at Tard which was just a short drive away.This paid dividends as we had excellent
sightings of the Bee Eaters,
although just not close enough to get images other than distant record ones.

We were soon back under the heat of the sun on the Little
Hortobagy and whilst it was a little quieter bird wise today, we saw most if
not all of the same species and managed to add a few extra sightings.I’ll try and confine myself to fresh
sightings rather than repeating myself.

The long and winding road (in fact pretty straight).

Squacco Heron and
Little Egret were soon added to our
trip list and Graham is sure he saw a Red
Footed Falcon (more of them to follow).Shoveller and Coot were added to our trip list, Chiffchaff was heard today and we had
far better sightings of Hoopoe and Lesser Grey Shrike.

Snakes added interest today with both Grass Snake and Smooth Snake
being seen in close up.Marsh Frogs were about in number.Insects also caught the eye in that we saw Humming Bee Hawkmoth and Cardinal Butterfly.Perhaps the out standing sighting of the day
was Swallowtail Butterflies.These came unexpectedly as I had remembered
on my previous visit to Hungary
at the same time of year that Rob had said we were to early for this
species.Rob later today said that
species were in flight much earlier now.We were pleased to see the Swallowtails.I haven’t seen more than the odd one
previously and this species has been a target for Sam for sometime.The first one we saw was very flighty and we
thought that there was little chance of a photograph.It turned out to be one of the highlight of
our photography opportunities when one Swallowtail
settled and allowed close up images to be taken.The butterfly settled at length and I believe
it was still there when we set off to on our walk again.It had given us a great opportunity to examine
it and photograph it.Roe Deer were seen again and Sam found Water Shrew.

Swallowtail Butterfly. One of the best photographic opportunities of the trip.

Cardinal

Our days on the Little Hortobagy were wonderful and as I
said earlier the first day especially is up there with my top birding
experiences.I’m confident that it won’t
be beaten this year!

Roe deer from the hide

A view from the hide

Roe Deer on the Road.

We were grateful for the cooler evenings after days on
the open plains under a hot sun.Our
next day was already planned, with an all day visit to the Halasto Fish Ponds
and Hortobagy (proper) after another early morning garden watch.A guide had been arranged so that we could
enter the restricted area in search of Great Bustards.

About Me

''Use the talents you possess - for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best.”-- Henry Van Dyke.
If you think the common can be as exciting as the rare then this blog may be for you, as it attempts to express my passion for birds and nature. All are part of my daily life and my home patch is all within walking distance of my home, although I often explore wider areas. I ought to be described as a naturalist rather than a birder. I believe that all who take an interest in nature will be well rewarded, but that such rewards ought not to be without reciprocation. My own contribution is made by volunteering, much of which is done in an attempt to help others share in the experience of the natural world. I attempt to reflect my interest in conservation and the fact that I believe the future of a natural world seriously in trouble relies very much relies on an openness of information to all responsible people. Responsible being the key word, and I therefore hope to keep the welfare of wildlife paramount at all times.